[Mnj] 31DEC05

[Eric Greisen]

31DEC05 is now the official development version of aips and 31DEC04 is
in a bug-fix only "slushy" state.  It will be frozen sometime around
31 Dec.  These developments are described on the AIPS web pages.

New, but available in both versions, is the capability to do a binary
installation and binary MNJs.  The main purpose of this is to make
available the output of compilers which are a bit too expensive to
purchase at most AIPS installations.  In this line, we are using IBM's
xlf compiler for MACPPC (MacIntonsh OS/X) systems.  We are using the
SUNWSpro compilers on SUL (SUN Solaris Ultra).  For completeness, we
are using GNU gcc/g77 version 2.95.3 computed on a RedHat 7.2 machine
for Linux.  We intend in the near future to try the latest Intel
compiler to see if it produces code that runs faster than the GNU with
comparable reliability.  Our tests on earlier Intel compiler versions
were not definitive or encouraging, but there are reports of
considerable improvements with the latest compiler.

The final 31DEC04 AIPSLetter should appear around the end of the
year.

Eric Greisen